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1.18.2014

After Sawyer's big Rock n Roll Themed Birthday Party in April, and the huge Disney Cars Themed Birthday Party we did for Grayson last year, I needed to keep it simple for G this year (especially with his birthday falling right before Christmas and right in the smack of all the holiday madness). The solution was to keep it to a small number of kids (just close friends) and hold the party somewhere besides my house (less to clean and prep). So, per G's request, we held the party at Safari Champ, a local indoor playground that G and his friends love. Not only are the space, clean-up, paper products, and balloons provided, but the party activities are also all set, since the kids played on the playground for most of the time.

While Cars and Lightning McQueen still hold the number one spot in G's heart, he also loves, loves, loves Thomas the Tank Engine. He was excited at the idea of a Thomas party, so we found some simple DIY projects to pull the theme together for this intimate birthday party. Click here to see my inspiration board for the party planning on Pinterest.

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Here are some of the party details:

DIY Happy Birthday banner made using some Thomas images I found online, and a font similar to the font used in the Thomas & Friends logo (Flange (R) Bold - download here).

I printed cards with the cloud graphic from the Thomas & Friends logo for food and beverage identification.

Cupcakes with simple DIY toppers using Thomas or "4" (for Grayson's 4th birthday). These just require a computer and printer, red paper, toothpicks and a glue gun.

Close-up of the cupcake toppers.

Inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, we displayed the food and snacks in disposable baking pans with construction paper "wheels" and set them out like trains.

A simple (and cheap) activity was created by printing some free Thomas coloring pages found online, and providing small boxes of crayons for each child (found by the dozen on Amazon).

We cut out ham and cheese and turkey and cheese sandwiches using train-shaped sandwich cutters (found on Amazon here).

Train cookie cutters also come in handy for a Thomas party. I made these train-shaped sugar cookies using this cookie cutter, found on Amazon here.

Keeping the party to under a dozen kids was helpful in the coordination and cost of favors too! We had conductor hats (found on Amazon here), red bandanas (purchased for $1 each at our local Hobby Lobby), and train whistles (found on Amazon here).

So, there you have it! A simple party, but one that still lived up to my personal DIY and detail standards, while being a lot of fun for the kiddos. Let me know if you have any questions, and check out my Thomas party pinboard on Pinterest here.

Edited to add: All printables for the party are available in this post here. These printables are free, but I would appreciate a follow for @fabeverydayblog on social media (you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or Snapchat with that username) in return. If you post pictures of your parties, tag @fabeverydayblog in them so we can see what you do! Finally, if you blog about your party, please link back to www.fabeveryday.com in your blog posts to credit the printables and inspiration.